Cally Koh's Story
Co founder ABC Celebrate Life!
Cancer Support Ambassador 

I am sharing my story with a heart of thankfulness! I would never have imagined I could live such a life now when I first discovered I had cancer in 1996! A LIFE THAT IS PURPOSEFUL, HEALTHY AND BEAUTIFUL! In 1996, at the age of 31,

I was diagnosed with Stage 2 (high grade) TNBC (Triple Negatives Breast Cancer). I did a lumpectomy and had 18 axillary nodes removed with 2 being infected. I underwent 6 months of chemotherapy and received 36 sessions of radiation. The minute I completed my treatments, I declared myself completely healed and walked out of the oncologist’s room experiencing total health till today!

My head of naturally black hair was an answer to my prayers that I can show ladies I journey with how life after cancer can be PURPOSEFUL, HEALTHY AND BEAUTIFUL!

The birth of ABC Celebrate Life in May 2021 was the result of my friendship with Dr Karmen Wong (who was my oncologist in 1996). We met many ladies on their cancer journeys and witnessed many who thrived and some who struggled. We noticed the consistent habits of the ladies who blossom and attribute it to their mindfulness and resilience. Therefore, we want to empower more ladies with these skills by equipping more ladies the tools and tips of achieving Mindfulness and Resilience!

When our program first ran in 2021, I was heartened to witness the transformation of many ladies in mere weeks after attending ABC Celebrate Life. Some were timid & quiet while some were shedding tears of fear. But by the end of the program, all were brimming with joy like being set free!

What changes have I made? For me, it is all about mental, spiritual and physical changes
• Having a Faith gave me the strength to transform my values, character, mind-set & attitudes in order to be a better me!
• Helping others is the key to my total healing. Mental wellness comes from serving. I can only give to others what I have. I learn, reflect, become aware of my weaknesses & make small changes daily to improve. In constantly trying to find ways to help others, I helped myself! The regular conversations with the ladies remind me to be thankful. Learning from their strengths, I am motivated to live well so that these brave ladies will see me as their role model too
• Connecting to the right communities & individuals so that I can help others and at the same time be strengthened, encouraged, developed and empowered!
• Having a Heart of Gratitude and being thankful every day for small things has changed my mindset & perspective in life.
• Doing things that make me happy like enjoying nice meals, having meaningful conversations with family and friends, going on holidays, watching dramas, and exercising kept me fit and looking good
• Having Mental Wellness - WHAT I FOCUS ON WILL GROW! Are you a victor or victim? Having the right mindset will make a great difference in your future.
• Eating healthy food and exercising kept me beautiful. However, I still have many cheat days, and I truly enjoy my daily latte and occasional wine and cheese too! I make sure that I exercise 3 to 6 times a week!!
• Keep reinventing yourself! Life isn't about finding yourself. Do not be constrained by your past heritage or what others expect of you. Life is about painting your masterpiece. So, get creative!

I hope what I have shared above will encourage, inspire and give you hope to thrive on this journey to lead a purposeful, beautiful life. 



Pauline's Story
-Run 3 Participant

I was born in the year of the Dragon. For most of my life, I have been a bad tempered person. People around me attribute my anger outbursts to my zodiac sign. Well meaning loved ones advised me to tone down my anger. I tried repeating, “Don’t be angry” to myself but this does not extinguish any of my furious tides.  

I did not feel the need to seek professional help. I am one of those people who can eat fatty food and still stay skinny. So figured that my appetite for rage is the same. I thought that I can “afford” to be constantly bitter and not suffer any consequence. This seems to be the case until I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast cancer in 2021 when I was 45 years old.  

After breast cancer, I become an avid apprentice in the art of living better. When faced with the trauma of a critical illness, everything in my life takes a dramatically serious turn. I recognized that my life was at stake due to the frivolous way I was treating my mental and physical health. I began to take self-responsibility to clean up my bad eating habits. I read up on nutrition and made it a point to cut out on carcinogen food that is so common in modern living. I exercise more by joining all the free exercise classes available in the community.  

However I still struggle mentally. There is this lingering fear of what if making all these changes is not enough? After treatment I went back to work and realized that my life is beginning to go back to ‘normal’. Work stress and daily triggers are making me fall back to my old mental habits. One day, I caught myself having an angry outburst. I suddenly realized that I desperately needed some mental conditioning but have no idea where to start. So I began to look for warriors who have survived cancer and found Cally. She must be doing something right to be thriving and living so beautifully more than 2 decades after breast cancer. I decided to study her and distill some best practice from her.  

When Cally told me about the ABC Celebrate Life! programme, I quickly signed up. After ABC, I became aware of “the iceberg” and the many submerged components that has been driving my behavior. Instead of saying, “Don’t be angry”, I am made aware that I will need to work through each of these components to tame my anger. 

The course opened my eyes to the fact that my thoughts have power and I have been perishing from the lack of this knowledge. I made the conscious effort to take captive of my every thought and process my ANTS (Automatic negative thoughts) through the steps taught in the course. We created vision collages and this creative process helped me remember goals I have buried after years of living in sacrifice as a busy working mom to 3 kids.  

With the help of PETS (Performance Enhancing Thoughts), I now find that I do not have to listen to the same “bad song” constantly playing in my brain. Learning by examples from my fellow participants, I now get excited every day with ideas on how I can live my best life.  

From this course, I met many strong and wonderful warrior sisters who gave much comfort and support in my cancer journey. Knowing that a sister had walked the same path and came out victorious made the journey less terrifying. Many great friendships are built from the course and I am now living more joyfully everyday. 

I hope that more ladies will know about this programme and receive this beautiful gift that I have benefited so much from.

Lay Kee's Story
Run 1 Participant

I was hanging the baubles on the Christmas tree. My husband asked, “Why are you putting up so many decorations this year?” I answered without turning my head, admiring the beautiful tree, “Last Christmas, I nearly died. This Christmas, I’m going to make sure I celebrate HARD!”.  

Last year, when my surgeon told me the diagnosis, she was surprised at how calm and composed I was. When I am faced with a crisis, my mental gate of emotions shuts automatically, I enter a fighting mode. And so, I fought the battle of life and death with the cancer demon like a gladiator. I was in strong fighting spirit. It went well. I survived.  

As the adrenaline and endorphins wore off, the gate of emotions opened, I was overwhelmed by a flashflood of negative emotions and thoughts. Questions like, “Why me?”, “How did it happen?”. Intense fear and anxiety, “Is this pain on my chest cancer, again?”, “What if the cancer comes back?”. Feeling of guilt, that I have put my family through such a terrible ordeal, that I have incurred such a huge financial set back on my family. I felt I was sinking into depression and was not sure how I could get out of it.  

I knew I needed help. This program came to my rescue just in time.  

I had never attended any mental well-being program before that, I was a little apprehensive initially. I was very uncomfortable with the fact that I would probably have to share my innermost thoughts, fears and feelings with someone whom I had never met before. Thankfully, my small group facilitator for the program made it so much easier for me. She gave me a call before the program. It was warm and welcoming.  

Wendy, the program’s lead facilitator exudes a positivity that was reassuring. Her bright smile was contagious. Cally and the facilitators were compassionate and encouraging. As for the participants, all of us had a brush with death (literally), we shared the same fears and anxieties, the similar experience connected us almost immediately.

This program was life changing for me. I learned to be mindful of my thoughts and emotions. I learned about self-care, which I was quite bad at before my cancer experience. I learned that thoughts are, well, just thoughts, that they are not the reality. I learned life is about choices, I cannot dictate what happens to me, but I can decide what I want to, and can do about it, physically, mentally and emotionally. It was a liberating realization for me.

Cancer was like a reset button to my life. Everything changed, my life, my work, and my relationships. This program helps me to step out of the shadows of cancer, to find a way going forward, to be at peace with myself, and find the confidence and courage to take a new positive outlook on my life.